War of the Worlds (2005)
100
Best Science Fiction Movies from Slant Magazine
#73. War
of the Worlds (2005)
“No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty-first
century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own.
That as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed - and
studied. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe,
confident of their empire over this world. Yet, across the gulf of space,
intellects vast, and cool, and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious
eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.”
n Opening narration,
spoken by Actor Morgan Freeman, largely quoting the original novel by H.G.
Wells
H. G.
Wells’ SF novel, “The War of the Worlds” (1897) is a landmark of the Genre.
Published in the earliest days of cinema, it was the subject of numerous failed
attempts at adaptation for the simple reason that the tale, so full of vivid
imagery, was beyond the reach of then-current FX. When it finally became
feasible, Wells’ themes were often viewed as too-cerebral or in need of
updating to more current concerns. This latter issue is because part of the
novel’s appeal was it was so contemporary in its focus but time just keeps
marching on.
Wells
novel must have been a least a little influenced by George Tomkyns Chesney’s SF book “The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer” (1871)
which was a pretty activist work, it warned of England’s unpreparedness for a
seemingly inevitable war with Germany. Wells ditched the Germans for Aliens and
launched into a critique British Imperialism, explicitly comparing the
suffering English under the Martians to the suffering of Tasmanians under the
English. The audacity shocked his audience, England then ruled a full quarter
of the Real Estate of Planet Earth, and no doubt many reading of the
English-as-Tasmanians were also thinking of the German threat that was looming
ever-larger.
The first great adaptation was by the
great Producer/Director/Writer/Actor Orson Wells in his radio play “The War of
the Words” (1938). He moved away from critiquing Imperialism in favor of a newly-renewed
German threat and an explicit condemnation of Fascism. It toyed with the
still-fresh memories of WWI (1914 - 1918) and landed out causing a Real-World Panic
because it was aired only months before the outbreak of the much-anticipated WWII
(1939 – 1945).
Producer/Director Cecile De Mille was one
of those who failed to realized “War of the …” for cinema, but his friend and
protégé, Producer George Pal, pulled it off with the masterful FX extravaganza
“The War of the Worlds” (1953). Pal chose to ditch almost all the novel’s
themes by focusing on the horrors just-past WWII and indulged fears of newer,
Russian/Communist threat as they had just obtained Super Weapons (first Russian
A-Bomb test was 1949).
The novel retained its readership as the
generations passed, and with there was an impulse for new adaptations or at
least rip-offs. These were often risible, like Producer Greg Strangis’ crappy
TV series “War of the Worlds” (first aired 1988) that leaned more heavily on
Pal than either Wells.
There was significant renewed interest just
after the Millennium, maybe because the USA is now as powerful as England once
was, but seemingly at constant risk like the English often denied they were. A
few of the bundle of new adaptations were flat-out terrible, but several were
surprisingly good. A couple attempted a faithfulness to the original novel never
seriously considered before and more still at least considered the original themes
more carefully, like the helplessness of the Common People in the face of a
truly more powerful Adversary (the pseudo-Documentary “War of the Worlds: The
True Story” (2012)) or returning to the critique of Imperialism (the TV mini-series
“War of the Worlds” (2019)). All of them, fair and foul, were triggered by this
version.
And
this version is about the Terrorist Massacre of September 11th, 2001.
The memory was still fresh of that sunlit day with blue skies that an unseen
enemy treated USA Citizens as if we were Tasmanians. Director Steven Spielberg stated,
"We live
under a veil of fear that we didn't live under before 9/11. There has been a
conscious emotional shift in this country."
Early
in the film, especially the scenes set in New Jersey (where Orson Wells set
much of his adaptation and Spielberg spent some of his childhood) are some
pretty 9/11 specific images, a quick pan of the NYC skyline that now-lacked the
Twin Towers, crowds running through the streets away from a Ground Zero they
can’t comprehend, white ash covering the bodies of survivors, and the threat
repeatedly reappearing without warning, blindly slaughtering the guiltless.
Given the advancing Science, the
Aliens could no longer be from Mars, so Spielberg and Writers Josh Friedman and
David Koepp tied them to the 9/11 Terrorists in the mannerisms of the initial
attack. A mere fifteen minutes into the film, on a sunlit day with blue skies,
strange storm clouds suddenly gather, unnatural lightning bolts specifically target
a precise location, and the Tripod War Machines rise from the Earth. No
explanation is ever given for this, but it’s a clear demonstration of a
Sleeper-Cell, long-awaited orders, now active.
This also has multiple SF antecedents
to this, most notably “Invasion: Earth” (TV miniseries 1998) where the Alien
Invaders had seeded the World long before they came to Harvest us. “Invasion:
Earth” was almost smug in its posturing that it was “Independence Day” (1996),
only not stupid, just as “Independence Day” smugly postured that it was “The War
of the Worlds,” only unapologetically stupid.
And though
never stated, the Harvesting was important in this film, the Aliens probably
here to eat us, an idea that is not as silly as you’ve been told by other
Critics. Think about it: Why invade? What do they want? Water is abundant in
the rest of the Universe, almost all the mineral resources of Earth are in in
greater abundance in the Asteroid Belts, but Protein and Chlorophyl can only be
found on a living Planet like this one. The Aliens were definitely here to Alien-Terraform
and this is the first adaptation of the novel to include its “Red Weed.” Basically,
Victorian H. G. Wells was toying with an idea that didn’t even have a name
until 1942, when it was coined by SF Author Jack Williamson in the
short story “Collision Orbit.” Related to this idea, the Aliens are felled by
Earthly Diseases that they lacked immunity to, part of the anti-Imperialist themes,
but also being argued so early in the history of the Germ Theory of Disease
that Real-World Surgeons habitually didn’t wear masks, gloves, and sometimes
didn’t wash their hands between operations.
The
better-than-average fidelity to the novel was part of a strategy to make this
film distinct from its long history of predecessors, which not only included
the above-mentioned, but also “Earth vs. Flying Saucers” (1956), “Starship
Invasions” (1977), “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzi Across the Eight
Dimension” (1984), “Mars Attacks” (1996), and those are only some of the USA
and Canadian examples, if I threw in the British and Japanese, we’d be here all
night. Spielberg was careful not only to avoid his predecessor’s mistakes, but
not to too-closely emulate their successes. Like the novel, but almost never
exploited before, we’re given an Everyman Hero, not an Expert, Secret Agent,
Scientist, Soldier, or Superhero, and keeps us rigorously close to his POV. We don’t
see what he doesn’t see and he mostly doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s frequently
powerless and sometimes bluntly un-heroic.
More
recent films of World-wide Catastrophe feature news reports from around the
globe, but the Aliens utilized Elector Magnetic Pulse Weapons, so no Cell-Phone
Networks, no 24-hour Cable news, and not that many cars to evacuate in, at
least not in Newark N.J. where our Hero is. There’s a bleak and funny scene
where Ray encounters a crashed Airliner and a News Crew standing next to it; the
Reporter (Camilla Monet) complains she can’t report the story she’s in the
middle of because she’s in the middle of it.
The
Aliens are blowing up famous monuments for sure, just like they do in virtually
every other film listed, but we don’t see that because our Hero is trying to
avoid the most obvious targets for his and his family’s survival. Unfortunately,
he soon learns he that even staying clear of the Statue of Liberty doesn’t mean
the Aliens won’t find him.
Starting with “Close Encounters of a Third Kind” (1977) and then
reaffirmed with “E.T.: the Extraterrestrial” (1982), Spielberg has been
associated with positivism in his cinematic fantasies and specifically nice
Aliens, but let us not forget his roots are in Horror. His first film, an amateur-outing
when he was only 17-years-old, was “Firelight” (1967), featured nasty Aliens. His
first professional job was for the Horror TV-show “Night Gallery” (1970). His
first professional feature-length project was the TV-movie “Duel” (1971) about
a murderously insane truck driver. His breakthrough cinematic feature was
“Jaws” (1975) which featured a shark that was nastier than the truck driver.
Though the vast majority of what followed was family-friendly, the hungry
Dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park” (1998) had a more than passing resemblance to the
above-mentioned truck-driver and shark. And here, almost forty-years later, and
the Aliens are nasty again.
It was apparently a project he’d long-tinkered with. Among Spielberg’s personal
memorabilia is the last surviving copy of the original script of the Orson
Wells’ radio play; because it triggered a panic the Police seized all the
copies at the studio, but Orson Wells’ co-Writer, Howard Koch, had one at home
while he slept through the hullaballoo. Spielberg would’ve likely made the film
in the 1990s, but put the idea on hold because of someone else was making “Independence
Day.”
Though
this film showed better-than-average fidelity to the source material,
differences abound. The setting and time-frame was shifted from Victorian
England to the contemporary USA. Our Hero is good-natured but neglectful father
Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) who starts his journey with
his two kids by his side, Racheal (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin);
he’s trying to reach his ex-wife Mary Ann (Miranda Otto) in Boston. In the
original, the unnamed narrator is mostly alone and his wife and kids are the
destination. Still, the emotional through-line is far more similar to the novel
than Orson Wells radio play, Pal’s movie, or the crappy TV series.
Spielberg
said, "I wanted this to be a very personal story about a family fleeing
for its life … I wanted this to be a very personal story about a family fleeing
for its life. And a father trying to protect his two kids — a father who isn't
much of a father but has to catch up along the way." Spielberg admits it
was very much about processing his feelings regarding his own father who became
distant after his parent’s divorced (though they became closer again decades
later) and his anxieties about his relationship with his own children. Many of the
then-24 features Spielberg Directed concern families severed, usually because
of divorce.
Ray’s
a man-child who has to man-up in a crisis and proves far from expert at it. The
strained family dynamic is economically set-up in the first fifteen minutes,
and shapes both action and reaction for the fast-and-furious 100 minutes that follow.
Cruise is wholly convincing; I far prefer him in Everyman roles than as
near-Superhuman Action Heroes that bring in so much more money for him.
Fanning
is among the USA’s greatest Actresses and completely sells that she is more
intelligent and mature than her loser-y dad, but still only eleven-years-old
and wholly dependent on him. Her line early in the film, “Is it the terrorists?”
locks the film’s ambitions in no-uncertain terms, and her look of terror,
staring out the back window of a car racing away from the Monsters, is
powerful.
Many
Critics complained about Chatwin, I thought he nailed the part of Robbie.
Robbie is resentful of his dad for good reason and hiding his fears behind
false bravado. He refuses to follow a man who never before led. The most
powerful dramatic scene in the film, when the family is on the fringes of the
largest battle between Human and Alien forces, Robbie crushes Ray emotionally, saying
Ray is incapable of protecting anyone, and disappears into the fray, abandoning
Ray and Racheal just to prove he is more of a man than Ray is. Reflecting
Spielberg’s flawless instincts, this hugely expensive, FX heavy, spectacle,
shows us almost nothing of the biggest battle.
Spielberg is famous for the speed in which he shoots his films, but never
before has he done a project so large, so quick. It was a product of wanting to
work with Actor Cruise again and both men being the most in demand in Hollywood;
the Project was Green-Lit when it was only because of a sudden gap in both
their schedules.
The task Spielberg took
on seems absurd, $130 million budget, millions more in marketing, theaters
being booked and trailers being cut, before the film is in-the-can. A
target-date for the Summer Blockbuster season, allowing only 10 months for
pre-, real-, and post-Production, 72 days of which would be allocated for the
actual shooting.
Spielberg’s speed was always a product of his careful planning, which he
received much praise for going all the way back to “Duel.” That film featured near-constant
and complex action scenes, all done on location, and on a very tight schedule.
He had a wall of index cards in his desert Motel room detailing almost every
angle of every shot. Later, most of his films were extensively story-boarded, the
story boards for “Raiders of the Lost Arc” (1981) would be published as a book after
the film’s released, they proved comic-book thorough.
Spielberg
was also generally on the cutting edge of film technology, but that impulse was
often competing with his comfort-zone. With nearly four decades of professional
experience that represent an average of more than two pictures a year, there
are things he already knew how to do, and people he preferred to do them with.
Cruise was an Actor Spielberg had worked with before, same with Writer Loeb.
Composer John Williams had been Spielberg’s favorite since “Jaws.” He’d used
the same Editor, Michael Kahn, since “Close Encounters of a third Kind” (1977)
which was also the film Spielberg began working with FX Chief, Dennis Muren,
and Muren’s second-in-command, Pablo Helman, started working with Spielberg
with “The
Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997). The Cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski has been with Spielberg since “Schindler's
List” (1993). The Production Designer, Rick Carter, since “Jurassic
Park” (same year).
Essential to the wild speed the making of this film demanded,
pre-Production needed to be shortened, but because of the complexity, the
intensity of planning couldn’t be cut. Spielberg was blessed with a newly
emerging process, Pre-Visualization, an computer-animated version of
storyboarding, where the Characters are moved about in a 3D-digital-space. This
allowed the Director not only to see how the shot would look, then move the
camera around, choosing different view-points, just moving the mouse. Spielberg
had used it before but only in a limited way, in “Minority Report” (2002) there’s
a scene where Actor Cruise is threatened by Robot Spiders and the process is estimated
to have saved the Production about $100,000 in man-hours.
Often
times, Spielberg’s most ground-breaking technologic changes had already been
pioneered by his friend and often Collaborator George Lucas. In 2003 Spielberg
was visiting Lucas at his Skywalker Ranch and was introduced to Dan Gregoire who
was working for Lucas on “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” (released the same year as this film, but
finished earlier). Gregoire was able to demonstrate “Pre-Vizz” capacities beyond
those Spielberg was familiar with, doing in an hour what usually took days. Said
Gregoire, "This backpack is my office." Spielberg Pre-Vizzed most of “War
of the …” and hired Gregoire specifically right after
“…Revenge of the …” wrapped.
When locations were
scouted on the USA’s East Coast, Gregoire would photograph potential sites from
a helicopter then take measurements on the ground. Spielberg was thrilled, "Once
all the info goes into the hard drive, I'm able to take a mouse and fly the set.
I can do a 3-D cyberspace location hunt and nail my angles. If I want to move
the camera 50 feet into the building, all of a sudden we're doing that … I
would not have made this release date had I not pre-vizzed the picture."
Spielberg’s
long-time FX Collaborator, Industrial Light and Magic (IL&M) put together a
team of 50 FX Artists for “War of the …” and when “Revenge of the …” was
completed, that expanded to 170+ Artists plus an additional 60 support staff. To streamline
the process further, ILM embraced a new software, Zeno, the first
major overhaul of its software since another Spielberg project demanded it,
“Jurassic Park.” Much of post-Production was done during actual Production as
IL&M was given only seven months to complete a year's worth of FX. Yet
another veteran Spielberg Collaborator, Kathleen Kennedy, stated, "I've
never prepped a movie this quickly, and I've never gone so fast in post … But
it works, and it works without sacrificing quality. That's the amazing thing -
we're not giving anything up. This movie wouldn't be five percent better if I
had six more months."
As stunning as the FX were, the camera doesn’t linger on the creations
very much. The Tripod War Machines are generally in the distance and seen
through a haze of smoke and dust, but visible enough to demonstrate how
gracefully sinister they were. The Tripods are from the novel’s description,
something beyond the capacity of FX men in Pal’s day, and scarier here than in
the 19th c. illustrations because they seem more organic than
mechanical, like a creation of Author H.P. Lovecraft. When the Aliens leave
their ship, the camera does hold on their grotesque forms, but even then, they
move in-and-out of shadow. And the films color palette becomes increasingly
washed-out as the landscape is more-and-more ruined. One is more reminded of
how the shark from “Jaws” was handled, less of the Dinosaurs from “Jurassic
Park.” The sound track used simple tactics to evoke dread, a deep, low, bass
note filling the world, again more akin to “Jaws” than “Jurassic Park.”
The
film has a large Cast, but few central Characters, mostly just Ray and his
kids, with dozens of people appearing, then disappearing, in the chaos. The
film does linger on Ogilvy (Tim Robbins, and Ogilvy is a Character in the
novel, but here, he’s based on two other Characters, both un-named in the book),
crouching in a basement, full of grandiose schemes of revenge and battling his
own hysterical panic. H.G. Wells’ novel gave us an uncompromising vision of the
psychological trauma of War long before most literature was willing to
acknowledge such things, many of the novel’s Character’s, including the
narrator, would suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something long-recognized,
but wouldn’t have a proper name until 1975.
Spielberg’s
take on the Character was not-similar to Orson Wells. Orson linked the trauma
of WWI to the reactionary politics of the 1930s, and in the radio play’s
script, the Character is called “Fascist stranger,” specifically linking
between the madness of a broken USA Citizen to the traumas of WWI facilitating
the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany. Here, though Jihadism never mentioned, nor
the Civil Liberties violations against USA Muslims in the wake of the attacks,
Ogilvy’s reactionary terror and reasons why, made it unnecessary to be explicit.
In an interview Scriptwriter Loeb also compared Ogilvy to Palestinian children
throwing rocks at Israeli armored vehicles.
After
showing a masterful hand for most of the film, Spielberg fumbled at the end. Many complained it was Spielberg
falling back on the lazy habit of happy endings, something evident in almost
every film he’d made since 1987. There’s truth to this, but it was also quite
similar to the closing of the novel and that ending worked in there, so why did
it fail here?
Comments
Post a Comment